Freerunner's Future

Thanks Sean for the kind words and for the opportunity to do something
unique. i spent some time thinking about how I want to organize
the community responses. I have a list of FAQs from werner ( somewhere
here in the pile of mail) and I want to solicit ideas from the community
on what OM can do to support the community efforts.
I am leaning toward putting Werner's FAQ on the wiki and also having
a wiki entry for a community "wish list" where the wishes are directed
at how OM can help.
Anybody who is better at wiki than me volunteer, please.
Steve
Sean Moss-Pultz wrote:
> Dear Community,
>> As some of you have heard, we had a layoff at Openmoko on Monday, May
> 25th. First of all let me second the comments made here congratulating
> the Openmoko team on all that was accomplished. And let me add that
> everything accomplished was only possible because of the amazing
> efforts of the community.
>> Bringing the Neo products to market, first the 1973 and then the
> Freerunner, has been the most exceptional experience of our lives. I
> can undeniably say that the most important thing we have learned over
> these years is that the power of people bound by ideals, rather than
> contracts, cannot be underestimated. These phones are your success.
>>From simple things like group sales to complex undertakings like
> developing and maintaining entire distributions, you made this happen.
> You always came through for us. As CEO, I have to determine the best
> path forward for our phone business. And after long discussions with
> my key people and Board, we've decided that the best path foreword is
> to turn the future of the Freerunner over to the community.
>> We've always said that the talent and creativity of those outside the
> company is superior to that inside the company. We have stuck to these
> principles. We've have opened up more than any other phone, from any
> other company, in the history of this industry. Every time we chose
> openness over internal control, we have been rewarded.
>> Former Openmoko employees have already started redesigning the
> Freerunner hardware (gta02-core) using only Free Software tools.
> Werner Almesberger, working with many others, has made great progress.
> Recently, we have released more information to accelerate their
> efforts. In the coming weeks, all the design information will be
> handed over to the community along with all of openmoko.org (Wiki,
> GIT, Trac, Planet, ...). Openmoko Inc. then will act as the sponsor of
> this effort. We will continue to fund all necessary server
> infrastructure and support, in areas where corporate help is needed,
> future open phone development. (Parts of this process will require
> legal work - so I request your patience.)
>> I am extremely excited about the idea of an entirely community-built
> open phone. Especially since, when the next design is complete, it
> will have the benefits of everything uncovered since the Freerunner
> shipped last July. It will be buzz free, glamo free, and free of the
> recamping bug (#1024) - which I am happy to announce has been solved
> this past week. We promise to support these efforts with additional
> resources such as components to build prototypes of the new design. We
> will help to empower you to build the open phone of our future.
>> After all this, there is one last thing that Openmoko the company can
> do: we can enable the community to use the Openmoko brand and
> trademark for these efforts. For us, the Openmoko brand is synonymous
> with the people who built the products: Harald, Mickey, Werner,
> Raster, all of my coworkers in our Taiwan office, Sureda, Tuxbrain,
> Bearstech, and countless others. I personally want to give an extra
> special thanks to Steve Mosher who has taught me so much about
> marketing, writing, and well...life. Without his guidance, this all
> would have only been an idea in my notebook.
>> I have asked Steve to lead an effort, over the next few weeks, to
> gather input from the community on how best to implement this
> transition. (He will follow up shortly on the community mailing list.)
> As always we can expect some negative comments, that comes with the
> territory. But we believe a community that owns everything of
> importance, with regard to the Freerunner, will focus efforts and
> energies on the future - not the past.
>> Sales of the current FreeRunner (A7), will continue as before. We have
> plenty more in stock. Now that the phone is freed, and its future
> entrusted to the hands of the community, Openmoko Inc. will start
> another effort on an altogether different type of device. We've sized
> our company to go do that task. Please wish us the very best of luck!
> More details will follow in the coming months...
>>> Sincerely,
>> Sean Moss-Pultz
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